Man Russ, you have no idea how long I've waited to hear that from this site. The New Vegas handling has been an absolute disaster every step of the way. I'd like to lay part of the blame on Microsoft on the 360 side of things too, as they had to approve that patch, but it's unreasonable to expect a single entity to do the kind of focused testing required for every game and patch released on their system. There has to be some kind of quality control guarantee, but 90% of the blame still lays with Obsidian.

I considered making New Vegas a day one purchase, but then common sense got the better of me. Being an Obsidian game, I felt that there were probably going to be some bugs and would wait till they patched it. Little had I envisioned the fuckshow that would proceed and leave me waiting for over seven months. I doubt the situation will ever be rectified and I will never play this game that I was, at one point, very excited about.

The best editorial this site has ever carried. Great stuff, love the whole breakup letter vibe, all the points were quite accurate and eloquently put.

Well, except your letting Neverwinter Nights 2 off the hook so easily. Even now, with all the expansions, it's a ridiculous bug riddled mess that I hold in higher contempt than New Vegas. NV seems an improvement to me, however minute.

I'm sorry, but Obsidian will always have a place in my heart. Maybe they should shift back to PC only development where patching is easier and, if necessary, able to be done after "Official" support is gone.

I think Obsidian's biggest (for lack of a better word) problem is that they try to do too much. All of their sequals are bigger and more adventurous then their predecessors and so they end up as buggy messes (though I've never had a problem). I would much rather have a company like Obsidian trying to push the boundries, but failing, then someone like Bioware who play it so safe its boring.

Haha, I giggled like a little girl when I scrolled down and read "And seriously, fuck you". Haven't read the article yet, but no article that ends in such a way can be bad <3Gonna take a nap, then read it.

People do know that its Bethesda who handled the testing and is handling the patching of New Vegas, right?

But I understand. After, what, 4 buggy-ass games(that I can remember), perhaps its also something to do with you, Obsidian.

Yes, Lucasarts totally screwed you with Kotor 2, cutting off a year of planned development just so that they can get a Star Wars out in the holiday season.

Yes your Neverwinter Nights 2 expansions were easily the best parts of the whole franchise(seriously, these things are amazing).

Yes Alpha Protocol's branching story is just phenomenal, and shows how little other games branch despite their promises.

Yes New Vegas is more like a proper Fallout game, instead of a Wasteland explorer game with Fallout as the title.

But after many buggy games, there remains 1 constant. You.

Hopefully you fix that with Dungeon Siege 3. I don't have an interest in the game myself, but as I've already said, if you can really release it with a relatively low about of bugs, I will buy it twice.

Alright, so when do we send Bethesda a message about their bugs and how pretty visuals aren't enough for a game and that it needs an interesting story and characters as well?

I think whatever editor ends a nice letter, packed with memories, adventure and betrayal, with the phrase "And seriously, fuck you." is one I would have no qualms in working for.

Well done, Mr. Pitts. At least someone in this industry has the passion to say "Oh, you companies don't give a rat's ass about your consumers? Fuck right off." and also has the stones to put it that bluntly.

I'm gonna wait and see how Dungeon Siege 3 is before having a definitive impression of the studio as a whole. Then again, Alpha Protocol was their first game I played, and I fell in love. So maybe I'm just starting the path that Russ has been on and will find that same disappointment.

thats right i dont care if a game has to come out 2 months late a broken product is worse than no product. a broken product will piss me off and make me feel like ive wased my time. with no product ill be patient and do other things, with anticipation.

I'm not finished with Obsidian yet, I actually quite liked Alpha Protocol. Let it be said however, They fucked up KOTOR 2 and New Vegas was a slap in the face to Fallout fans. In both cases, because it was more promises than anything else.

Obsidian isn't a wacky author, constantly leaving projects half done. He's an inventor who only wants to work on the interesting theory problems, and only grudgingly ever makes something.

Poor obsidian. They squandered all the capital they saved up from the Black Isle days. I'm still of the yahtzee school of thought that an ambitious failure is something that is more desirable than a timid, committee-generated success.

And though Kotor 2 didn't have an ending Peragus was the best opening level ever made.

Personally I don't get all the anger towards them. To me, there's just sadness. Think about it for a second - this is Black Isle we're talking about. Yes sure, they have a few limbs missing and had some prosthetics put in their place, but most of it's still there, right?

However that only makes you remember. Makes you remember Planescape. Makes you remember Fallout 1 and 2. Makes you remember Icewind Dale. Heck, even Baldur's Gate, even if they just published it.

I still play these games. Sure, mostly it's because my shitty PC can't run anything released after 2005, but it's mostly because of another thing - They are good. Hell, the worst of these games is good. The best is some of the best computer RPGs ever made!

And then you come back and look at what's going on now. Seriously, maybe I'm just turning emo these days, but this just makes me sad, almost as sad as when I think of Troika Games.

I recall giving Obsidian a chance with New Vegas. After completing the game despite the constant freezes (one every other hour) and experiencing for myself Obsidian's asshattery, I walked away embittered with a venomous vow to never buy another one of their products, past or future. I learned the hard way they are incapable of learning from their mistakes.

I have been saying this exact thing from time to time on these forums, but obsidian lost me just after new vegas was released and i had to wear a hat when entering a zone to keep my game from hard crashing my x box.

How do games like these keep getting released, New Vegas has reminded me of my WORST gaming burn ever, Hellgate London. Such potential, so awesomely hyped up with cool trailers (HGL) and promises of awesome exploration and customization (NV) and released just short of the level of unplayability. Its like someone very high up had everyone on the playtesting team screaming NOOOOO and they just said...fuck it.

Seriously what piece of shit company has its game patched almost a full month faster by the fucking PC mod community than the makers of the game (big props to the mod community btw 3 days to fix a game wowser). How sad is it that people who do this in the spare time are better at their hobby than Obsidians PAID employees are at their JOB...

Jumwa:The best editorial this site has ever carried. Great stuff, love the whole breakup letter vibe, all the points were quite accurate and eloquently put.

Well, except your letting Neverwinter Nights 2 off the hook so easily. Even now, with all the expansions, it's a ridiculous bug riddled mess that I hold in higher contempt than New Vegas. NV seems an improvement to me, however minute.

The "break-up letter" vibe is old hat. Mr. Pitts is an veteran at that. After all, his claim to internet fame is using the term "eagle semen" in a resignation letter written as if by a jilted lover. Breaking up, contrary to Niel Sedaka's lyrics, ain't all that hard to do.

Irridium:People do know that its Bethesda who handled the testing and is handling the patching of New Vegas, right?

And didn't they do the dlc too?Yea, I think Bethesda is just as responsible for this mess as Obsidian.After paying $60 and waiting for half a year for them to fix it, I officially gave up on that game. From what I saw of it, it wasn't as interesting as other fallouts anyway: I enjoyed exploring DC a lot more and it wasn't just because I could occasionally explore it for more than a half hour without a complete crash. It seems to me that a lot of the best devs seem to be phoning it in this gen and depending on their fanboys to bring them big profits anyway. I hope they're mistaken. R* pissed me off most recently with their three way denial that there's anything wrong with LA Noir, or the consoles it's breaking. They can't even be bothered to lie to us the way Obsidian/Bethesda do and tell us that they're working on it.

But back to the point, we should also be holding Bethesda responsible. Even if I am mistaken and they didn't have anything to do with the patches or dlc, they were still the publisher and should've helped Obsidian iron out the big problems BEFORE launch.

The "break-up letter" vibe is old hat. Mr. Pitts is an veteran at that. After all, his claim to internet fame is using the term "eagle semen" in a resignation letter written as if by a jilted lover. Breaking up, contrary to Niel Sedaka's lyrics, ain't all that hard to do.

Everything under the sun (or the glow of a monitor) is old hat. Therefore it's all a matter of implementation. And I found he melded the facts into the format pretty well.

Not only did he manage to critique Obsidian in a very well thought out way, but he made it interesting and unique.

I feel exactly the same way. Maybe in my youth I was ready to take on such a needy game. Working long hours to patch things up was worth all those good times. Now I just need a game which works immediately. I just can't deal with Obsidian's issues anymore. I need someone who is self reliant, and doesn't need me to fix everything.

If only Bethesda were here. She might be a bit more plain but the times I had with her were still magical. I see that more clearly now. I was using New Vegas in order to reignite the love I have for Fallout 3, when I should have just called up Fallout 3 from the start.

The sad part is Obsidian is only the first of many to come that are openly terrible at it. Other devs are getting there, but not quite as quick to throw their hands up in defeat and ignore game breaking bugs.

Development cycles are speeding up, and Q&A is reduced to next to nothing. All to favor faster releases to bring in the cash for publishers and investors. Most have undeniably started using the players as the Q&A team to find and report bugs that should have been found and fixed during development.

If the bug isn't fixed in the first two patches, it is likely to never be fixed before the dev team is either laid off or transferred to a new product.

This is the future of gaming and its already upon us. Get used to it or find a new hobby. Best we can do is hope people vote with their wallets, but that is wishful thinking thanks to all the corrupt reviews and metacritic bullshit telling us there is nothing to worry about when in fact there is. Plus all the people who can't wait for true feedback on a game and its problems because that 60 bucks is burning a hole in their pocket and they have no self control.

I've gotten in the habit of waiting 6 months to a year after release dates to pick up games just for this reason. Either problems are mostly fixed, or the price is significantly lowered so I don't feel burned for my purchase.

You've got to admit... releasing patches that break the game is pretty messed up. And I find it quite interesting that it was only the 360 version that was messed up. After hearing so many studios tell us that developing for PC is too hard (Rockstar!) due to all the possible hardware/software configurations, Obsidian manages to release a patch that breaks xbox systems with a completely stable configuration, but ticks along just fine on the pc.

I have said these self-same things numerous times - including Obsidian's douchy behaviour leading up the release of New Vegas and I will admit, it feels pretty awesome to have someone else state agreement with me, rather than just flaming me.